


Let's Start the New Year Right

by Scout924



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Holidays, M/M, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-World War II Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Teaching moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 22:43:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17109539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scout924/pseuds/Scout924
Summary: “People don’t go to parties to talk, Stevie,” Bucky says, leaning forward, his hands on his knees and a gleam of mischief in his eyes. “They go to neck in the closet in the back bedroom.”A good ol' fashioned tale of friends teaching friends how to kiss a girl.





	Let's Start the New Year Right

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CapriciousKitten (SunflowerPineapple)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunflowerPineapple/gifts).



> For my dearest friend and amazing partner-in-crime, Quinn. Thank you for being the very best beta and the best friend a girl could ask for. Merry Christmas :)

“So, have you asked her yet?”

 

Bucky’s practically dancing as he stirs potatoes at the stove, prancing around the kitchen like he’s making a four-course meal instead of potato soup. Steve supposes it’s because he’s brought home a few spices he found in the recesses of the storage room at the grocer’s and apparently thinks he’s a renowned chef. 

 

“Oh, lay off, Buck. You know I ain’t asking her nothing.”

 

“Stevie, Stevie, Stevie! You’re killin’ me, here! You ain’t never gonna catch a dame by starin’ at her across the room!”

 

Bucky’s going on about Evie, a pretty blonde in their class at school that sits just on the other side of Bucky. She has powder blue eyes and a long curtain of hair the color of wheat that she often hides behind. She is gorgeous, truly, and for some reason has taken to asking Steve about his drawings during lunch, even coming over yesterday to sit beside him at his normal place on one of the benches outside while she ate her sandwich. 

 

Steve knows she could be interested in him, okay? It looks good. He knows these opportunities are few and far between and that he’s a damned fool not to reel in a fish if it bites. But right now, thinking about the strawberry pink bow of Evie’s lips is the last thing on his mind when he’s got a wiggling, whistling vision of Bucky Barnes dancing around in front of him in the kitchen. His tie is thrown over the back of a chair, suspenders pushed off his shoulders and dangling around his waist. The first few buttons of his shirt undone to expose his chest and the smattering of dark hair there. He’s whistling some Christmas tune that Steve can barely hear, one of his ears being plugged with cotton as he’s getting over his most recent ear infection. 

 

Even like this, in the soft glow of normal, everyday life, he can’t tear his eyes away from Bucky. And he hates himself for it. 

 

“Look now, Bethany’s party is this Saturday! That leaves you two days to ask her. And I know she’s holding out on an invitation from  _ you.” _ Bucky punctuates the sentence by poking Steve gently in the nose with the wooden spoon, standing over him with his arms crossed and giving him a filthy wink that sends heat rushing up the back of Steve’s neck. 

 

“Okay, say I ask her and say she says yes--”

 

“--Which she will,” Bucky grins, kicking out a chair in front of Steve and plopping down.

 

“Then just what am I going to do with her when we get to the party?” He says, exasperated. “I’m not that interesting, Buck! I can’t talk about my pictures for three hours!”

 

“People don’t go to parties to talk, Stevie,” Bucky says, leaning forward, his hands on his knees and a gleam of mischief in his eyes. “They go to neck in the closet in the back bedroom.”

 

Steve just covers his face in his hands, hoping to hide the heat now racing over his cheeks. “How do you expect me to even think about kissing a dame when I can’t even talk to one?”

 

“Aw, don’t be like that, you just don’t have any practice is all.” Steve hears the scrape of Bucky’s chair as he scoots back and rises, going over the the stove and flipping off the heat. 

 

“Easy for you to say, you’ve got tons of hours logged ‘necking.’” He says, as he lets his fingers fall away from his hot cheeks. “Say, whatever happened to you at Marlana? I thought you were going to ask her to go steady?”

 

Bucky shrugs, quickly tasting the soup and letting the spoon drop into the pot. “Eh, it was a wash. Didn’t work out.”

 

“For all the skirt you chase, how come you don’t go steady with none of them?” Steve asks, genuinely curious as to why Bucky spends all his time dancing around dames but never settles down with a real girlfriend, never taking one home to meet his Ma and Dad.

 

“Dunno, Rogers, guess I just haven’t found the right partner.” Bucky tosses a dish rag on the table and comes to stand in front of Steve again. “Look, Steve, if you’re worried that you’re out of practice, um, I ain’t above giving you a few lessons.”

 

Steve’s eyes shoot up from his lap, but he finds Bucky dead serious, if not a little sheepish, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. He seems to come back to himself as Steve opens his mouth to retort. 

 

“Look, ain’t nobody else around. It’s just me and you, like always. Whaddya say?”

 

He holds his hand out to Steve, who’s mouth dries on the spot, but he slides his hand into Bucky’s anyway, lets him pull Steve gently to his feet. 

 

Bucky pulls him forward until their chests are just touching, one arm wrapped around Steve’s waist and the other holding his arm stretched out as if they’re on the dance floor. 

 

“First thing you gotta do is loosen up. I know you’re not a big talker, so just look her in the eyes and  _ smile _ ,” he says softly, putting a finger to Steve’s chin to tip it up. Their noses are almost touching they’re so close, and he’s following Bucky’s instructions to a T, because the hounds of hell could be at his feet right now and he wouldn’t be able to look away from Bucky’s eyes. 

“You ain’t gotta swing her around, just sway a little, like this.” He begins gently swaying his hips back and forth, humming the familiar tune from before in Steve’s ear. He presses his jaw to Steve’s temple, holding him softly against him, and Steve wants to stay here forever, surrounded in Bucky’s embrace. 

 

“Alls you gotta do is dance with her, Steve. Hold her close, give her a little kiss here,” he starts, planting a light kiss to Steve’s temple. “See if she likes that. If she does, then give her another one right here,” he presses his lips to Steve’s cheek, which is likely to burn Bucky’s lips. He feels like he’s about to shake apart in Bucky’s arms, can feel his fingers trembling from where they’re cradled in the other man’s palm. 

 

“And then,” Bucky whispers, holding Steve’s gaze with his own, “you just lean forward, just like this.” He brushes his nose gently against Steve’s and lets his eyes flutter closed. “And you kiss her.”

 

His mouth is firm, a gentle pressure that makes Steve’s head tilt back and his body seem to melt in Bucky’s arms. The kiss is there and gone again, a fleeting moment before Bucky’s eyes open lazily, like he’s waking from a deep sleep. Steve expects him to drop the act and pull away, but Bucky stays pressed against him, dipping his head and humming against the sensitive skin of Steve’s neck, and Steve knows he feels the full body shiver that runs rampant over him at the feel of Bucky’s lips pressed against him so intimately. 

 

“ _ Let’s watch the old year die, with a fond good-bye,”  _ he murmurs the words lowly, keeping the beat as he slowly sways them back and forth again, and Steve recognizes the Bing Crosby tune. “ _ And our hopes as high as a kite…” _

 

He feels warm and sated, afraid if he opens his eyes he’ll wake from this apparent dream and be thrust back into reality. But he hears Bucky’s voice in his ear like molten chocolate, warm lips against his cheek again like a lover’s caress. “ _ How could our love go wrong if we start the new year right?” _

 

“Wanna keep practicin’, Stevie?” Bucky asks, pulling back so Steve is forced to meet his eyes. When Steve can only nod in response, a slow, sweet smirk slides over Bucky’s face, and he brings his lips down to meet Steve’s again. 

  
  


* * *

 

In the end, Steve does manage to ask Evie to the dance, though it feels a more exciting getting ready with Bucky at home than it does picking the girls up from their houses, who are all blushing and fluffing their hair. Evie is a vision, her dress matches her eyes perfectly and she takes Steve’s arm with a big smile and a shine in her eye. He manages a dance or two without stepping on her feet, and by the time midnight draws near, he’d say he’s had a good time.

 

But as the party guests gather around the radio, listening intently as the radio host counts the seconds until the new year rings in, Steve and Bucky are nowhere to be found. Instead, in the recesses of a back bedroom closet, Bucky pulls Steve close, nestled amongst old trench coats and scratchy party dresses. He gives him that grin that Steve will hold onto for years to come, in the future when moments like these are only snatches in his memory, and Bucky presses his lips warm and soft against Steve’s as they start the New Year right. 

 

“ _ 3...2...1...Happy New Year!” _


End file.
